So Perfect A Romance
by Gamma Orionis
Summary: Rabastan and Andromeda are the perfect couple. Everyone knows it. Everyone except Andromeda. Written for AmyRose512's Proposal Challenge and WizardWay's Wedding Competition on the HPFC forum.
1. The Engagement

Author's Notes: Two-shot for AmyRose512's Proposal Challenge on the HPFC forum.

_As the title states, I'd like you to write a story about how a couple became engaged. It could be humorous, dramatic, a parody of other famous engagement stories, whatever. Just make it interesting._

Also for WeasleySeeker's Wedding Competition on the HPFC forum.

_Just write __at least 1000 words__ about that couple's wedding_.

)O(

The kitchens of Black Manor were dark, lit only by a few candles. If Andromeda or Rabastan had been so inclined, one of them could have stoked the fire or lit a lamp, but they were enjoying the tranquillity of the darkness.

Andromeda sat with Rabastan, knees pulled up to her chest, her head on his shoulder and her hands entwined in his. Her head rested on Rabastan's thin, wavering chest and his arm lay her shoulders. Andromeda could hear his heartbeat, could feel every breath he took, and she was glad for the darkness, because it concealed the soft blush that painted her cheeks as he slowly ran his hand down her waist, petting her like a cat.

Rabastan looked down at her adoringly, brushing his lips gently and tenderly against her hair, and she smiled too. She twisted and started to move forward to kiss him, but Rabastan stopped her with a finger against her lips.

"Shh…"

She paused, tilting her head curiously while reached into the pocket of his coat.

"What–" Andromeda began, but her question was answered when Rabastan drew a small velvet box out of his pocket. Andromeda's eyes widened and she looked from it to him, comprehension slowly dawning upon her face. He lifted the lid, and she could not quite restrain a soft gasp. Inside, nestled in rose-red silk, was a diamond ring, glistening in the candlelight.

"Oh… Rab…"

"Shh…" He pulled the ring out and laid the box aside, taking Andromeda's hand and sliding the band onto it before raising her hand to his lips and brushing them against the diamond.

The whole scene was like something out of a fairy tale, Andromeda thought, and her smile widened. It _must_ be a sign that you were really in love with someone when you could communicate so well that you didn't need to talk. She was searching for words to express her feelings – love, honour, disbelief, nerves – but, though she wanted to speak for politeness' sake, she knew that Rabastan already understood what she was feeling. Rabastan understood everything.

"Rabastan… it's so perfect…" She hesitated half a second, then added, "_You're_ perfect…"

"Please marry me, Andromeda," he murmured. The question was more a formality than a real request – she knew what he was asking when he put the ring on her finger, and he knew just as well what her answer would be. The look in his eyes, soft, hopeful love, was more than Andromeda could ever have resisted. Her heart melted and she let go of restraint, flinging her arms around Rabastan and burying her face in his neck, clinging to him.

"Of course I will," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

She pulled back a little, in time to see a tear roll down Rabastan's cheek as he smiled more widely than she had ever seen him. "Oh… Andromeda…"

"Andi," she told him, kissing his lips. "We're going to be married, you might as well have a nickname for me…"

"Andi," Rabastan murmured. "Andi…" He responded to her, resting his hand on her hair and drawing her closer to him to deepen the kiss. "Andi…" he murmured against her lips, "We are going to be so happy together…"

"Yes…" she murmured. "Yes, we are."

She drew back at last, when Rabastan's hands started to wander, giggling slightly. "Rab… we'll only have to wait a little while. I'm sure you can control yourself until we're married."

"Only just," he breathed, and kissed her again.

The two of them spent very nearly an hour in the kitchens together, enjoying each others' company before Rabastan had to leave. Andromeda very nearly floated up the stairs, in a joyful haze, wondering what the first step in planning the wedding would be. How would she tell her parents? She knew that they would approve – they adored Rabastan Lestrange, he was a good Pureblood boy and they had, she knew, had every intention of marrying her off to him in any case, but how exactly to bring it up… and should she already be planning things like what sort of wedding dress to wear or the sort of flowers to have at the wedding when surely her parents would be in charge of all of that?

She wandered into the bedroom she shared with her sisters, slightly dazed, and blinked in surprise when she saw them locked in an embrace, smiles on both their faces.

"Bella? Cissy?"

They broke apart, and Narcissa immediately turned to Andromeda, looking excited. "Rodolphus and Lucius were just here!"

"And?"

"Three guesses," Bellatrix said with a slight smirk, raising her hand to show off a glittering diamond. "So sorry that you weren't here to have some boy propose to you on the same night… better luck next time, Andi…"

"Actually," Andromeda said, grinning widely and holding her hand up, "Rabastan was here too…"

Bellatrix's jaw dropped. Narcissa let out a delighted squeal and flung herself onto her sister. "Oh, Andi, it's perfect! All three of us can get married on the same day! Isn't that exciting?"

"Very," Andromeda agreed, raising one eyebrow at Bellatrix, who still looked flabbergasted. "What is it, Bella? Didn't you think he'd propose?"

"Of course I did," said Bellatrix. "I just didn't think you'd _accept_."

"Why not?" Andromeda suddenly felt defensive, and she frowned. "I love Rabastan."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes, bringing her hand up to her face to examine her ring more closely. "Of course you do."

"I do!"

"Mm hmm…"

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Oh, I do." Bellatrix's voice was all innocence. "Why wouldn't I believe you? I mean, it's not as though you've ever shown interest in anyone else…"

"I haven't!"

"That's what I said."

Andromeda let out an impatient sigh. "Fine. Good. I'm going to bed."

"Sleep well, darling…" Bellatrix drawled. "Don't let that ring on your finger keep you up…"

"Why would the ring make it hard for me to sleep?" snapped Andromeda, pulling on her nightdress and climbing into bed.

"Oh, I don't know," said Bellatrix airily. "I've heard guilty consciences tend to keep people awake."

"I don't have a guilty conscience!"

Bellatrix hid a snicker behind her hand. "Of course you don't have a guilty conscience. Just the way you didn't sleep with Ted Tonks."

Andromeda blanched.


	2. The Wedding

The weeks leading up to the three weddings of the Black sisters became increasingly active and frenzied, which was good for Andromeda – anything to stop her sister from bringing up that ill-fated night with Ted Tonks. As long as Andromeda could focus on other matters, she was all right. Druella would not stop harping at her daughters that they needed to lose weight (or, in Narcissa's case, to put it on) so that their wedding dresses would fit properly, there were near-constant fights over whether the sanctuaries should be decorated in red roses for love, as Bellatrix desired, or white roses for innocence, the way Narcissa wanted. The girls spent hours upon hours standing still until they saw stars while they were being fitted for their wedding dresses. Tensions ran high, and more than once, Bellatrix lashed out at Andromeda with a threat to tell their parents about her and Ted. Then the thoughts that Andromeda was trying so diligently to push away would come flooding back.

Ted Tonks – or, as Bellatrix was wont to call him, "that Mudblood" – was Andromeda's vice. He was her sin, the one thing that stained her name and her blood.

He had been something like a friend for years – the two of them had met when she had been playing alone on the moors, both had snuck out of their homes to go up and enjoy the outdoor freedom, and, when one is thirteen, there is a certain thrill to doing something wrong that can bind friends together for life.

But they were not thirteen anymore.

Really, it had only been a matter of time before they had slept together.

It had been a hot summer night, and Andromeda had slipped out of Black Manor for desperately needed fresh air. Ted, also taking a walk in an attempt to cure his insomnia, had met her out on the moors.

Sitting out, beneath the starry sky, hot breezes blowing around them, had been so lovely, and Andromeda had felt so free, that it was no surprise what had happened that night. Talking led to kissing, kissing led to gentle caresses, and when Andromeda was lying flat on her back in the grass, skirt around her knees and Ted atop her, she felt no surprise or shame or guilt at what she was doing.

It was a different matter when she returned home.

Bellatrix had caught her stumbling back inside as the sun was rising, grass in her hair and mud stains on her skin. Bellatrix had demanded to know what had happened. Bellatrix had been appalled when Andromeda told her.

Andromeda had been expecting congratulations from her sister on finally ridding herself of her maidenhead, but when Bellatrix had heard that she had been with a Mudblood, the first thing that she did was threaten to tell their parents. Andromeda begged and pleaded and bribed and finally managed to convince her sister not to, but the threat hung perpetually over her head. Bellatrix used it as a constant source of power, a way of controlling her sister.

Andromeda had been more careful after that.

She still saw Ted regularly, but Bellatrix didn't know, and she never would.

At least, Andromeda thought, while she stood in front of the mirror with her arms out, letting the dressmaker loosen the seams around the bust of her wedding dress, she would never know if Andromeda did go on to marry Rabastan.

What was she saying? Of course she was going to marry Rabastan.

She frowned a little at her reflection. It was a most peculiar thought, the idea of not marrying. _Cold feet_, she told herself. _That's all this is. You're nervous._

_I'm not, though._

She chewed on her lip, pondering. From a purely objective standpoint, what would happen if she _didn't_ get married?

She would have to run away, of course. She couldn't break off the marriage – her parents would never allow it for the scandal it would cause.

And what would happen if she ran away?

She would hurt Rabastan's feelings. That inspired a painful flash of guilt for even entertaining the possibility. Rabastan was such a good man – why would she want to hurt him?

She _didn't_ want to hurt him. But that didn't mean she wanted to marry him.

_Stop thinking like that! Of course you want to marry him!_

She shook herself. Even asking herself questions like this was insanity. There was no reason at all not to stay and get married. She loved Rabastan.

Didn't she?

)O(

The morning of the wedding dawned cool and misty, much to Narcissa's distress. She woke both her sisters by complaining that it was bad luck to get married while it was raining.

"Well, what do you expect us to do about it, Cissy?" Bellatrix snapped. "We don't control the weather, and you can't very well ask Mother and Father to reschedule the wedding just because you're being all superstitious!"

Narcissa had looked hurt at that, but Andromeda was scarcely paying attention. There were hours yet before the ceremony, and already her heart was pounding in her ribcage for fear of what was going to happen.

"Are you all right?" she heard Narcissa say, her voice sounding very far away. "Are you feeling ill, Andromeda? You look pale…"

"What?" Andromeda physically jolted in surprise at being addressed. "Oh… no… I'm fine."

"Then for the love of Merlin, get up out of bed and help me get my damned corset tightened," Bellatrix said.

The morning was spent in a whirl of activity, of arguments and wild embraces from their mother and searching for the jewellery that Narcissa had misplaced, and when the clock finally struck noon and the three sisters were ushered out into the drizzling rain to hurry across the grounds of Black Manor to the chapel, Andromeda was sure it could not be more than eight o'clock in the morning.

They said time flew when you were having fun, but time flew even faster when you were dreading what came at the end of it.

The wedding ceremony was not big – just a few dozen people, enough to fill the pews of the Blacks' chapel, but few enough to give the ceremony an intensely claustrophobic air. Andromeda peered into the sanctuary, catching just a glimpse of Rabastan, Rodolphus and Lucius before her mother ushered her into the antechamber.

"Mother," Narcissa said suddenly, looking stricken, "Who is going to give us away? Is Father going to walk all of us down the aisle at the same time, or is he going to come back for us one at a time?"

"You're all going down the aisle at once," Druella said, distracted by pinning a loose lock of Bellatrix's hair up.

Narcissa's face fell. "I have to _share?_"

"Yes, of course, he's their father too!"

"But…" Narcissa's lip started to tremble, and Druella quickly rushed to her youngest daughter's side to comfort her.

"There, there, darling," she said, pulling a handkerchief out and dabbing at Narcissa's eyes. "Would you prefer Abraxas to give you away? Your husband's father? That way, you wouldn't have to share…"

Narcissa sniffed, and nodded, and Andromeda lost interest.

She, Andromeda, could hear blood pulsing in her ears. She felt a little dizzy and quite delirious as Druella left the antechamber, and the three sisters stood alone. They did not speak, and all that Andromeda could think of, standing there, minutes away from her wedding, was whether Ted Tonks could have slipped into the chapel for the ceremony.

She had told him about it. She had told him she was getting married, had _invited_ him. The look on his face had been one of such ultimate hurt that it made Andromeda's heart ache to remember it.

_Stop thinking about it!_

Organ music sounded, and Andromeda felt as though she was about to be sick. _Oh, please, don't get sick, whatever you do, don't get sick_, she ordered her stomach.

"You don't look very well, Andromeda," Bellatrix commented.

"I'm fine."

She clutched her bouquet of roses, feeling thorns that had not been removed digging into her palms, her stomach cramping up, her breath coming short and fast in the confines of her corset. Organ music began to play and Narcissa drew herself up excitedly. Even Bellatrix was smiling a little bit.

Cygnus stepped into the antechamber and took the arms of his two eldest daughters without a word. Abraxas followed, and Narcissa rested her hand on his elbow. It was a better fit, really, Andromeda thought, looking at them. Narcissa would have looked out of place beside her dark-haired sisters and father.

She, Andromeda, was not aware of her legs moving when Cygnus began to lead her and Bellatrix up the aisle. The event felt like a dream, hazy and unreal, and all she could see was Rabastan's thin, handsome face, his lips curved into a smile for her. The organ music pulsed almost painfully in her ears. She desperately wanted to tell the organist to quiet down, but she couldn't.

Then she and her father and Abraxas and her two sisters were at the front of the chapel and the music fell silent.

"We are gathered here today," the priest began, his voice slightly gravelly, "in the face of this ceremony, to join Rodolphus Lestrange and Bellatrix Black, Rabastan Lestrange and Andromeda Black and Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, in matrimony…"

He continued speaking, reciting dull, endless vows, and Andromeda felt her father's arm slip away from hers. She was grateful for the veil that obscured her face, because with it, she could scan those congregated in the church. Was that Ted there, in the corner? No, that was just Sirius. There, sitting beside Uncle Alphard? No, that boy had Malfoy hair. She searched the pews out of the corner of her eyes, but no, of course he wasn't there.

"Rodolphus Lestrange, do you take Bellatrix Black to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," was Rodolphus's immediate answer.

"And do you, Bellatrix Black, take Rodolphus Lestrange to be your…"

Andromeda gazed out of the stained-glass window just above Rabastan's shoulder. It was raining outside, and she wondered if she might be able to slip out after the wedding and before the reception and go up to the moors to say one last goodbye to Ted.

How _long_ did these vows go on? Andromeda was desperate to get out of the chapel, feel cool rain on her skin, and perhaps have one last chance to see Ted Tonks.

"Rabastan Lestrange," the priest said, and Andromeda started. "Do you take Andromeda Black for your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," Rabastan said.

Andromeda's heart was beating fast. The full scale of her situation was dawning on her – she could never go back from this.

"And do you, Andromeda Black, take Rabastan Lestrange for your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?"

"I…" _I don't. I don't want to do this. I'm not ready to get married, I'm not ready to give my whole life away!_

"I do," Andromeda managed.

From the pocket of his robes, the priest produced a gold band.

"May this ring be blessed so he who gives it and she who wears it may abide in peace and continue in love until life's end," he said, handing it to Rabastan, who took Andromeda's hand.

"With this ring, I wed thee," he said softly, and everything about it was as perfect as their engagement had been. Everything, except that Andromeda wanted with all her heart to clench her hand into a fist, to run away and never come back. But she did not, and she forced herself to smile as Rabastan slipped it onto her finger, finishing his vows with, "Wear it as a symbol of our love and commitment."

Then he dropped her hand and the priest drew out another ring.

"May this ring be blessed so that she who gives it and he who wears it may abide in peace and continue in love until life's end."

He handed it to Andromeda, who stared in dismay for a moment, before reaching out for Rabastan's hand.

"With this ring," she said, her voice shaking more than she would have liked, more than could be explained away by nerves, "I wed thee."

And then she stopped. Because out the window, just visible through the stained glass, palms pressed against the panes, looking in was the most sadness she had ever seen on a human being's face, was Ted Tonks.

Andromeda froze. How could she do this? How could she make someone as sweet and _good_ as Ted watch her marry another man? This was all wrong, and she didn't want to do it and she couldn't get out of it now. Her hand shook as she stared desperately, meeting Ted's eyes through the room and the glass and her veil, and she thought as hard as she could, _I'm sorry._

"Wear it as a symbol of our love and commitment," she said at last, sliding the ring onto Rabastan's finger.

Then she could not speak another word. The priest began to talk again, but Andromeda was numb. She did not react even as Rabastan lifted her veil and kissed her, so gently and tenderly. She was watching the whole ceremony from outside herself, and they made such a perfect picture – beautiful bride and handsome groom, surrounded by family, the bride's sisters being happily married as well… everything was just _perfect_.

So if everything was so perfect, why did Andromeda want so badly to cry?

)O(

_Fin_


End file.
